Today, UPEI Administration once again provided the university community with an update on their view of the status of negotiations. We think it is important to draw attention to several aspects of this message.
To begin with, in place of UPEI Administration’s original commitment to pursuing “any avenue” (Feb. 15) to reach a settlement, this new message makes clear their preference for a narrow range of “offered options” and their strong preference for interest arbitration.
As we have made clear in the past, interest arbitrators will often decline to rule on complex issues such as student/faculty ratios and instead focus on less complicated issues such as compensation. This means that interest arbitration is not a viable mechanism for addressing the serious systemic issues that are having an impact on the educational quality of our institution.
Make no mistake, interest arbitration cannot fix the problems that have led to larger classes, fewer courses, and a range of workplace issues that threaten the future of our only Island university.
In addition, UPEI Administration has once again suggested that it is waiting for the UPEI Faculty Association to respond to its proposals. To be clear, the UPEI Faculty Association has repeatedly requested meetings to discuss these new proposals. To date, UPEI Administration has not responded to our requests.
Click here to read our March 6 request for a meeting to discuss proposals.
Click here to read our March 10 request for a meeting to discuss proposals.
Why does this matter?
In collective bargaining, the parties have a legal obligation to make every reasonable effort to conclude a collective agreement. Central to this obligation is the duty to bargain in good faith.
In 2007, the Supreme Court of Canada recognized that collective bargaining is protected under the Canadian Charter of Rights and Freedoms. In this landmark decision, the Supreme Court also highlighted practices that could be considered bargaining in bad faith:
A basic element of the duty to bargain in good faith is the obligation to actually meet and to commit time to the process (para. 100).
As we have made clear to UPEI Administration on a number of occasions, we are prepared to meet to discuss proposals and to work towards a fair and reasonable agreement that is acceptable to all the parties. To that end, we encourage UPEI Administration to follow the example of numerous university administrations in our region and across the country who have been able to reach negotiated settlements with their academic staff.
UPEI Administration, you say you want to avert a strike.
So why won’t you meet with us?
